Teen Social Media Use

 Surgeon General

The first link that I looked at was from thesocialinstitute.com and it looked at the new Surgeon General warning that 13 might be too young for kids to be on social media. This article points out what many are already starting to figure out and others are by passing, that it is not exactly realistic. Most social media sites require a minimum age of 13 to sign up to begin with. Which also leads to many lying about their age to get on. But the important thing is, most 13 and up students already have a social media account. They have probably been using it for quite a while and it might be the only way they can keep in contact with some friends already. The article mentions the schools getting involved and helping teens figure out how to use social media safely and to create "a designated tech time or tech-free time during school". Something that should already be happening in terms of social media during class time. But even then, the schools play into the students' social media use. The middle school that my library works with (and I went to) requires students and parents to follow them for important information; for example, if there is an e-learning day, that is where they notify parents and students. They had a snow day this past winter and parents found out through their kids who saw it on social media that morning. If the student is on the cheer squad, they need to be following that team on social media for important updates. Even the library recommends it as the go to form of communication about events. If we are really going to be saying that 13 is too young for kids to be on social media, I think the adults need to step away from pushing it on the teens as well. 

Source: Surgeon General



The Hill

The second link I looked at was thehill.com  where they also talk about the Surgeon General warning. The article also ties in the current fight in government against TikTok and how they are asking children to monitor their own time spent on social media despite it being designed to suck you in. They also want better safety standards and more transparency from the platforms before going on the App Store but say nothing about the ones that are already live. 


My Response

I think that there is a large amount of teens that are already trying to monitor their own usage on social media and even technology. After all, they were old enough to deal with the shift from little tech usage pre-pandemic to full tech usage during the pandemic into whatever it is now post-pandemic. It also helps that a lot of phones now track usage of single apps so they can look and see where they are spending a lot of their time. There is a technology burn out and a social media burn out going on with a lot of these teens and young adults that no one wants to focus on either. 


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